


Back to the start

by Trash



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: AUish I suppose?, Implied non-con and torture, M/M, Porn, Post Avengers, What if Loki didn't really live the life of riley after he is imprisoned on Asgard?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2018-01-03 11:30:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trash/pseuds/Trash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For his war crimes on Midgard Loki is imprisoned in the Asgardian dungeons. Until Thor is crowned King, and things change. Or perhaps they simply go back to the way they were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back to the start

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Ella for reading this for me. Unbeta'd, really, so any mistakes are because of reasons.

_Tell me you love me, come back and haunt me_  
 _Oh and I rush to the start_  
 _Running in circles, chasing our tails_  
 _Coming back as we are_

The Asgardian dungeons are not known for their comfort, and Odin is not known for his kindness. Loki already knows both of these facts before he is led down to the cell that is to become his home for the future, but there is little he can do about it now. 

Frigga refuses to see him go without. After everything, she still thinks he deserves the best. After everything, she hasn't abandoned him. He hides the bruises the guards inflict on him with an illusion, shields his mind from her too. She cannot know how he is being treated. Though he deserves it, he does not want her to know that he suffers. 

Though every blow comes with authority from the King, Loki hasn't seen Odin himself since they returned from Midgard, the day he was sentenced to life for his war crimes. He watched the guards lead him into the Throne room blankly - Loki could have been anybody or nobody and Odin's expression would have remained the same. 

Thor was there, Loki recalls, looking disappointed at the foot of the Throne. Resentment Loki could handle, but the disappointment stung in a way he couldn't place. Beneath the muzzle he growled, but all it did was make Thor shake his head and look away sadly. He didn't come down to the dungeon with the guards. 

He had since heard rumours of Thor's coronation. He hadn't paid them much heed until Frigga confirmed it. Guards walk past his cell discussing it, discussing the first coronation - the failed one. That seems so long ago now, but Loki remembers every single second of it and it plays through his mind more often than not. 

He leafs through his latest book with disinterest. The words swim on the page in front of him and he slams it closed, tossing it across his cell in the general direction of the pile Frigga brought him. The temperature has been turned down to something that would kill humans and make even Aesir uncomfortable, and only when it is this cold does Loki appreciate his Jotnar blood. 

Frigga has started projecting dreams into his head when he slumbers - he is a child and she combs his hair whilst Thor plays with his friends in the garden below his chamber window. 

"Thor is always too rough," Loki tells her. 

"When you play?"

"No. When he combs my hair."

Frigga can't hide the worry that momentarily clouds her eyes. "Do you like Thor combing your hair, Loki?"

"Only when he is gentle. Which is rarely."

Frigga doesn't say anything else about it, and that evening he waits for hours for Thor to come and comb his hair before bed. He falls asleep in the window seat, tears drying on his cheeks. When he wakes up he can still feel his mother’s hand on his shoulder to steady him as she ran the comb through his hair, he can still hear the jovial voices of Thor and the Warriors Three as they played. And he can still feel the sting of not being invited, and he can hear the concern in his mother’s voice when he unintentionally revealed something that should probably have remained between him and Thor.

Loki closes his eyes and tries to find Thor above him in the palace but he can't penetrate the cell walls. It isn't that he hasn't tried before - he often left himself weak and exhausted when he was first incarcerated - but he has never been so desperate. He regrets none of his actions on Midgard, but he wishes things could have ended differently between Thor and himself. 

He wonders if Thor is thinking of him as he dresses, wonders if he remembers the morning of his last coronation. Does he think of Loki appearing in his chambers as he steps from the bathtub. Does he think of their stolen kisses? Of how he made Loki scream?

Perhaps not. 

Loki clenches his fist and a book flies across the cell, crashing into the glass. 

***

Loki knows he is being watched before he opens his eyes. He smirks to himself. "Well, if it isn't Thor, King of Asgard." He opens his eyes, raises an eyebrow. "I would bow to you, oh King, but I cannot muster the energy to stand. You really should treat your prisoners better."

"I did not ask you to bow."

Loki sighs, all of the steam gone from his desire to fight. "Why have you come?"

"To give you a choice."

"I'm listening."

Thor clasps his hands behind his back. "You can stay here, with none of your luxuries - Mother is forbidden to supply you with anything else, and everything you have already been given will be taken away."

Loki raises an eyebrow. "Well, brother, that is an offer -"

"Silence!" Thor's voice echoes around the prison. Behind him the other prisoners move forward in their cells to get a better vantage point. "You can rot in here, forgotten and worthless. Or you can leave with me right now."

"Are we going to ride off into the sunset together?"

Thor says nothing. His facial expression should be warning enough. 

"Or are you going to parade me around Asgard as a lesson for anybody else with ambition and desire?"

Thor's lip curls in distaste. "You have not ambition and desire, rather a taste for blood and a need for power."

"Aren't they synonymous?"

Guards appear and surround the cell and Loki feels truly trapped for the first time since his incarceration. He gets to his feet, hands open at his sides. “I vote for the latter option."

***

The chain around Loki's waist links to shackles around his wrists and ankles that make his walk little more than a shuffling gait. He is led past the cells by Thor and his guards, the other prisoners sneer at him and he can't help but smirk. Playing with fire. He knows if any of the prisoners here were to be freed they'd hunt him down.

Thor leads the group up to the palace, and Loki is at least grateful that they don't take him outside. He hasn't seen natural light for a very long time, hasn't particularly missed it. He tries to focus only on the way Thor walks and not on the eyes he feels on him as they pass others in the halls. Has Thor always looked so confident? (Ignore their eyes, watching, questioning.) Or has he become confident now that he is King? (Ignore their sharp words, do not rise to it.)

Loki could walk the path they take blind, having walked this way so many times. He knows, without asking, that Thor has not taken Odin's chambers though he is entitled to. Instead he has remained in the same part of the palace he has his entire life, and Loki feels a smirk creep onto his lips. Sentimental fool. 

They continue past the door and Loki looks back, hesitating. A guard jams his staff into the small of his back, prods him as though herding cattle, and Loki moves to keep up. 

Further down the hall they stop outside the door to Loki's chambers. He is surprised Odin hasn't sealed it off, half imagines it filled with rubble and everything covered in dust. 

A guard steps forward to unlock the door and Thor steps in, grabbing Loki by the wrist chains and dragging him inside. He remembers his mother scolding him for one thing or another as a child by returning him to the scene of the crime to show him the mess he had left behind. He hated to disappoint his mother, and always apologised and never told her how it was Fandral or Sif or Thor who started what ultimately ended in a fist fight. 

Thor looks at him in the same way, before looking around the room. "Is everything as you remember it, brother?"

Loki glowers. "Not _everything_."

"Give me the key," Thor demands of one of the guards. "I may wish to unshackle the prisoner."

The guard looks between him and Loki, his mouth a tight line. "My liege, I do not -"

"Give me the key," Thor demands, putting out his hand. 

The guard does not argue again, and presses the key into Thor's hand with a bow of the head. 

"Leave us," Thor says, and the guards do. 

Loki looks down at his restraints and then up at Thor with a slow smile. "Oh, brother," he says, eyebrow raised, "I did not realise you had a taste for deviance such as this."

Thor wheels round and grabs him by the throat, pinning him against the closed door. Loki stretches his legs desperately trying to reach the floor with his feet, to no avail. 

"You will not speak unless you are spoken to. Do you understand that, brother? You are not free. Do not mistake this room for anything other than a change of scenery. This is still a cell, and you are still a prisoner. And, as such, you will behave as I expect you to or else I will return you to your hole in the ground to rot. Do you understand?"

Loki nods, unable to speak. He tries to summon magic to disappear but his lungs burn and his vision dances with black spots. When Thor releases him he falls to the ground, boneless. He coughs, pushes himself onto all fours shakily. "I understand," Loki tells Thor's boots. 

Thor grabs the chains between his hands and heaves him to his feet. He nods, satisfied. "I was not happy knowing you were down there. The All-father would not free you, and he would not approve if I did. This was the only way."

He unlocks the shackles and Loki snatches his wrists to his chest, rubbing them until the broken skin heals. "The only way?"

Thor nods, down on one knee to unlock Loki's ankle shackles. "To get you back."

Loki watches Thor suspiciously as he hangs the chain from a coat hook by the door. "So that is what this is all about? You are not keeping me here as a prisoner but as your own personal trophy. Your living, breathing crown."

"Unlike some, I do not make everything about myself," Thor says. He locks the door and then stands awkwardly, unsure of what to do with his hands. Eventually he settles for folding his arms across his chest. "Did you really think I enjoyed life whilst you were down there? I couldn't sleep."

Loki looks at him in disbelief. "Do you know what Odin does to his prisoners, brother?"

"If you are going to complain about your conditions again I will not listen. Mother kept you comfortable, she told me you were well."

"Mother only knows what I wanted her to know," Loki snaps impatiently. "My health was merely an illusion to comfort her, when in fact I was often close to dying."

"You are being dramatic-"

"Enough!" Loki hisses. He steps forward quickly before Thor can react and presses a hand to his forehead, projecting memories through his fingertips. 

Thor's body quakes visibly, his eyes glazed over and empty. Loki watches him until he knows enough is enough, removing his hand slowly and catching Thor before his knees give way. They stay like that for a long moment, Thor resting all of his weight on Loki, his eyes closed. 

When he opens his eyes they are wet with tears and he looks terrified. He winces when Loki lets go of him, reaches out with one hand but thinks better of it and wraps it around himself protectively instead. "They whipped you."

"Yes."

"With chains."

"Yes," Loki says. His voice doesn't sound like his own. 

"They...they..."

"They beat me until I didn't have the energy to heal myself. They raped me, sometimes twice a day. Sometimes there would be more than one of them at a time. So tell me again, dear brother, how you could not sleep knowing I was down there. Tell me what you think you know."

Thor flounders, lost for words. "Father would never have ordered that."

Loki rolls his eyes. "Do you honestly think anything goes on down there without Odin's say-so?"

Of course that's what he thinks. Thor has always been one to see the best in people. He would never doubt somebody, particularly not Odin. Loki can see the conflict in his mind, should be believe his brother? Does that mean, then, that he believes his father is capable of such evil?

Loki sits on the edge of Thor's bed and leans his weight on his hands behind him. "If I am to be your prisoner then I will be better off than I was in the dungeon.”

“You are Asgard’s prisoner,” Thor corrects, “not mine.”

“Oh. Is that what you will tell Lady Sif when she finds out what you have done?”

Thor ducks his head, ashamed. His face goes bright red and he cannot bring himself to meet Loki’s amused gaze.

“I wish I could have invited to your betrothal celebrations. Have you bedded her yet?”

“That is none of your business.”

Loki raises an eyebrow and stands up, prowling over to his brother. “No, I suppose not. But you do not deny being betrothed to her. When is the wedding?”

“A month from now,” Thor says, his voice little more than a murmur. He stands frozen as Loki gets closer, their feet touching.

Loki nods, his eyes dancing with amusement. “How lovely. And when will you tell her that you have no interest in consummating your marriage? Will that be before or after you tell her you released me from the dungeons to keep me close at hand? Hmm? Or has something changed since the last time we lay together? Do you know longer wish to use me as a way to indulge in your darkest desires?”

The back-hand that Thor deals is not entirely unexpected but still almost knocks Loki off his feet. He staggers back two steps, a space opening between him and Thor that his older brother takes advantage of crossing with a long stride, hands grabbing Loki by the collar. 

His face is tense with anger and Loki brace himself for harsh words and a harsher beating but receives neither. Instead, Thor lets go of him, hands shaking, and retreats until they are not within touching distance.

"You remember things differently to I. I was not merely indulging, as you put it."

"Don't tell me you love me."

Thor frowns. "Then what am I to say?"

"Anything other than that," Loki says, and he knows he looks as exposed as he feels. He does not want to hear Thor's words of endearment, he never did. When they were younger they did not really know what they were doing, they did not fully grasp the weight of the decisions they were making. But as they grew, they both knew that a world where they could live happily-ever-after in love did not exist. Hearing of Thor's betrothal to Lady Sif only defines the fact, and Loki feels empty. He wishes, suddenly, for the battle-hardened hands of strange guards upon his body. Anything but the tender touch Thor offers, his hand warm upon Loki's cold skin. 

“Loki...”

Loki closes the remaining distance between them and presses his lips to Thor’s. What he had intended only to be a chaste kiss turns into a mess of open mouths and Thor walking him backward with a hand cupping his face. He pushes Loki down onto the bed and doesn’t hesitate, climbing on top of him immediately. The feel of Loki’s body beneath him, a relentless, hard line of ice, takes his breath away and Loki takes the opportunity to gain the upper hand. He rocks his hips up against Thor’s, revelling in the throaty moan he gets in return.

Thor grabs Loki’s thigh and encourages him to wrap his legs around his waist, and Loki acquiesces. The new position gives Thor the room to grind down against his brother, their erections meeting through their clothing. They cling to one another, moving in time with their own moans and gasps. Thor grabs a handful of Loki’s hair and pulls hard, exposing the pale, cool skin of his neck and pressing hot kisses to it. Loki keens and tenses, and they’ve done this enough times for Thor to know that means he is close.

He picks up the pace, the intensity. Once they would have had to be careful – the bruises on Loki’s neck and wrists would raise questions that neither of them were inclined to answer – but now Loki is his prisoner, and Thor takes the chance to treat him as he wishes. He presses his hips down and Loki rocks up to meet him, shaking as he comes. Thor follows him soon after, collapsing onto Loki’s chest. Loki runs a hand absently through his brother’s hair as they lay there in silence, spent.

“What if I do not want this, brother?” Loki asks as soon as he feels capable of stringing a sentence together.

Thor sits up to look at him, frowning. “I thought I made it abundantly clear that you are a prisoner, Laufeyson.”

Loki narrows his eyes. “Of course, my King.”

They look at each other for a long moment, and in that time there is nothing but each other. Thor visibly shakes himself out of it and gets up with a grimace. “I am going to bathe,” he declares.

“How wonderful.”

Thor shoots Loki a withering glance. “Someone will be along with dinner, later.” He turns and leaves, not looking back. Loki hears he unmistakeable sound of the lock sliding to from the outside. He lies back on the bed and closes his eyes, whispering a spell under his breath to change his clothes. Thor seems to be enjoying playing Prison Governor, having Loki trapped and under his control. What he doesn’t seem to know is that things have always been this way, only without the locked door. 

Loki has always been under Thor’s control, whether he was willing to admit it or not.


End file.
